SURESCRIPT TAPS WEB VETERAN FOR TOP POST

MARK HAMSTRA

ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- SureScript Systems last month named Internet-pharmacy veteran David Weinstein as the company's first president and chief executive.

He was a co-founder and former chief executive of eScript, which specialized in electronic prescription authorizations. He most recently served as senior vice president of Healinx, which merged with eScript in 2000.

Weinstein is the first top executive at SureScript, a company created by the retail pharmacy industry to develop a system for electronic communication between physicians and pharmacists. The National Association of Chain Drug Stores and the National Community Pharmacists Association, both based in Alexandria, launched SureScript in August as an alternative to electronic links between doctors and pharmacy benefit management companies, which operate their own mail-order pharmacies.

"Our goal is to create a direct, cost-effective way for prescribers and pharmacists to communicate electronically," said Craig Fuller, president and chief executive, NACDS, who also serves as co-chairman of SureScript.

Other executives hired to manage SureScript included Bob Beckley, vice president; Barry Klayton, interim chief financial officer, and Ken Whittemore Jr., vice president.

Whittemore told SN that no additional senior management personnel are expected to join the staff.

"We'd like to keep it as lean and mean as we can," he said. "We plan to use a lot of technology partners. We're not looking to build it all ourselves."

He said SureScript expects to begin some pilot tests by the end of the first quarter.